“I hope you will,” Brad said. “Sorry you didn’t come in first.”
Nope. He definitely hadn’t suddenly decided to be a gracious loser.
Marta glared daggers at him, taking a breath to say something. Something that’d leave him wishing he’d never been born, I thought, based on the look on her face.
“Apology accepted,” Devin said before Marta could start, sliding his hand into mine under the table and linking our fingers together. “I actually wanted to thank you.”
Brad raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, for really showing your ass today in the car,” Devin continued. “If you hadn’t, I might not have figured my shit out with Morgan. So. Thanks.”
A beat of silence was broken by a snort from Marta, which set Chris off, which ended in all of us laughing as Brad stood there, gaping like a fish, face going red.
Hestillhadn’t developed a sense of humor.
“C’mon, man,” Alex nudged. “You gotta laugh at that.”
“I don’t have to laugh at Devin throwing his life away with—ow,” Brad yelped, looking down in surprise.
“Sorry.” Julie blinked innocently at him. “Leg spasm.”
“Fine!” Brad threw his hands up in the air. “You guys wanna laugh at me, that’s the last you’ll ever see of me.”
“Oh no,” Alex said, eyes comically wide, hand fluttering dramatically to the center of his chest. “How will I ever live with myself, having driven away such a shining beacon of humanity?”
Brad’s jaw twitched, fist clenched, and my heart dropped into my stomach when I saw where this was going.
“Ow,” he cried out again, leaping away from the table.
“Leg spasm,” Julie repeated, so innocent I almost believed it myself.
“Fuck you guys,” Brad said, turning to leave. “Fuckallof you.”
Devin snorted, resting his head against my shoulder. “You really don’t want him to,” he murmured, low enough that Brad wouldn’t quite hear, but loud enough to set off another round of laughter at the table.
“Don’t drive off a cliff or anything on the way home,” Chris called after him.
Silence fell over the table for a few beats while we all carefully avoided watching Brad go.
“I can’t believe you kicked him,” Alex said to Julie, awe in his voice. “Twice.”
“I can,” Marta responded. “She onlylookslike a harmless sweetheart.”
“She looks like she has a collection of animal bones,” Chris pointed out, back to drinking his beer as though Brad had never interrupted.
“Shedoeshave a collection of animal bones,” Devin said. “Don’t fuck with Julie.”
I raised my glass for another toast, grinning the whole time. “To not fucking with Julie.”
26
Devin
“Night,”I called to Chris and Alex, barely getting a wave in return as Alex pushed Chris into the cabin, the two of them laughing as they stumbled, Alex reaching out to drag Chris inside with him.
“Night,” I added, waving to Marta and Julie as they disappeared into their cabin, too, hand in hand and giggling.
Morgan paused, my hand still firmly curled up in his, looking at me from the darkened cabin, his blue eyes invisible except for the way they reflected the moonlight.
